Enjoy the Silence – Toddler Speech

March 13, 2013

This week I have started to see a massive improvement in Lucas’ speech and I am loving it. I’ve spoken on here before about how he has been a ‘slow’ talker. He is 18 months now and we are only just starting to get proper words; it has worried me but now I can see how quickly he is picking it up I’m not as concerned. All of a sudden I can see him watching me talk and trying out new words. He points at objects or pictures in books so I can say what they are and sometimes he will have a go at saying it himself. Everyone assured me that he would start in his own time and he has and we have lots of excitement and cuddles everytime he learns a new word. I know it is natural to worry about things like this, especially when all around you toddler speech is being compared, everything is an ‘average’ and if they don’t meet certain targets at the right time the professionals can send you into a blind panic! No matter how long it takes him to get there I know he will get there, he doesn’t show any signs of it being part of a wider issue…he is just taking his time.

 

The words we are currently getting are car, cat, daddy, I see, uh oh, tickle and just yesterday (and still being used for some random objects) cow. It turns out that cow is a fun word for Lucas to say and it seems to make him laugh. Another of the new words is a quite definite ‘NO’ which he seems to like to say at the end of any question I ask him. Do you want to put your coat on? No. Shall I put you back in the pushchair? No. Do you want a biscuit? No…takes biscuit. I have got so used to asking questions because he never responded; I have always chattered away to him without much thought of the consequence. Now that I am starting to get replies I am learning to change my questions to statements; Time to put your coat on. Let’s go in the pushchair. The biscuits can remain a question because I don’t mind if he says no! I suppose it is inevitable that NO would be one of the first words as with a toddler in the house it is used regularly throughout the day; I will have to start saying regularly mingling in the word Mummy.
I have been so used to the silence that I had never really considered the meaning of him learning to talk and ultimately learning to answer me back. He is so independent and stubborn I am quite certain that his speech will be an extension of that independent streak. All this time that we have been waiting for him to talk he has been taking it all in, making sense of everything we say so he is fully prepared to take us on. I am sure that once he gets going I will long for the days when I could ask a question and he would just smile at me sweetly.
Toddler Speech
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